Friday’s Food for Thought: GEOINT and Wildfires

Earlier this week, a wildfire spread through Galinburg, Tenn., leaving hundreds of destroyed homes and businesses in its wake.

DigitalGlobe satellites snapped images of the destruction and provided before and after shots. Before images were taken in January 2015 and post-wildfire images were captured Dec. 1.

As part of Esri’s Disaster Response Program, the company tracks wildfires via its Public Information Map, an interactive map of U.S. wildfires that includes data on at-risk areas, wind conditions, precipitation, and other factors. Users can click on areas of interest as well as real-time social media posts to keep informed.

According to Digital Trends, Boeing is exploring the idea of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and augmented reality to help revolutionize the way wildfires are managed. Boeing hopes UAVs will track the progress and status of fires and create 3D maps that can be viewed with augmented reality headsets to give coordinators a unique perspective on visualizing the data. The article said these technologies would make it easier for first responders to coordinate with one another.